Swine flu continued its surge with four more persons, including a three-year-old child, dying of the pandemic, taking the nationwide toll due to the deadly virus to 93, even as 139 fresh cases were detected on Friday across the country.
While the deadly contagion claimed three lives in Karnataka with two dying in Bangalore and one in Bijapur, another person succumbed to the virus at Nasik in Maharashtra. A three-year-old boy Gowdappa Biradar became the youngest swine flu victim in Karnataka, health officials said in Bangalore.
Admitted to a private hospital at Bijapur with swine flu symptoms on August 23, Biradar died on August 26, but the report of his throat swab confirming H1N1 status was received today, they said. Two women -- Sowbhagya, 48, and Azra Kausar, 35 -- also succumbed to the virus at a private hospital in Bangalore. While Sowbhagya died on August 26, Kausar died today, they said.
A swine flu patient M Shaikh, 39, who was undergoing treatment at MGM Hospital in Navi Mumbai for the last ten days and was shifted to D Y Patil Hospital in the same area died on Thursday night, a health official said. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, now accounts for 47 fatalities -- 25 in Pune, ten in Mumbai, eight in Nasik, two in Aurangabad and one each in Dhule and Latur whereas 23 people have died in Karnataka.
Seven have died in Gujarat, three each in Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, two in Uttarakhand and one each in Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan and Haryana. The flu spurt continued across the country with 139 fresh cases of the viral disease being detected today, bringing the number of those infected with the disease to 3,534, Health Ministry officials said.
The virus is affecting people aged between 14 to 44 years more and delay in reporting for treatment is the reason behind most of the deaths, officials said. Director General of Health Services R K Srivastava, quoting a survey by the Health Ministry, said that instances of death occurred when people infected by the virus reported for proper treatment five days or more after the symptoms surfaced.
He said the study was conducted from random sample analyses of 30 people who died due to the virus infection. "Though the sample size is too small for a scientific study, it gives us a broad idea of the case patterns," he said.
Asking the people with symptoms of fever, breathlessness and cold to immediately report to a doctor, the DGHS said it is the only way to save lives.
